Gift bags to hold treat holders

Here is a photo of the front of one of the gift bags I decorated for Christmas to hold the treat holders I had made.  The blue printed card stock is from Recollections.  It is from their 6x6 collection "A Winter's Night".  I used a Spellbinders Cinch and Go Poinsettia die set for the flower. Die cut it out of white/GP and used the Denim Blue distress in to add colour. Put Stickles on all the edges of the flowers and leaf pieces.  Used a scroll leaf die for the gold leaf pieces. The glittered gold sprig piece was punched out using an EK Success large sprig punch.  Cut apart a holiday pick for the gold pieces and the small pearl piece is from Hobby Lobby.  Added holographic gems to the bag front from Hobby Lobby.  Die cut "Merry Christmas" using gold foil sheets from the dollar store:

I usually do the bag fronts with the traditional holiday colours but I really liked this printed card stock with the blues and golds as well as the ornaments and the trees on it. The camera did not capture the sparkle on this bag but the flower and gem stones IRL add a lot to the print. 

Tool Holder

Had never seen this before but my DSD gave me one for Christmas -- it is a makeup tool holder and I have put it to use to hold various craft tools. Here is a photo of the box packaging showing it used to hold makeup tools:

She bought me a black and white one and I have my awls, my picker up tool, an Exacto knife, and a Sharpie pen in it to show all it can hold:

It has a nice weight to it and it does not tip over. It also takes up less space than what I was using to hold some of these different tools. Happy me to get this to add to the craft room organization and it keeps these tools in reach for me when I am working on things. She also gave me a few holiday dies for future projects for next year. Lucky I did not have any of the dies she gave me....

ALSO --- here are photos to show what my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime) gifted me for Christmas and happy me!!

Tonic Studio kit -- has dies and everything inside for lots of projects!! 6x6 BOO Day card stock pads and the cutest ghosts die set from Cottage Cutz:

Frame dies from Altenew:

Card stock with matching ink pad and refill from Close To My Heart:

Holiday 6x6 paper pads with a vellum pack and chipboard pack from Fun Stampers Journey:

Two quilt pattern embossing folders:

A gift bag filled with shaker supplies/bling/ribbon trims/etc:

 
Certainly a wonderful surprise for me and I loved all she gave me.  Plenty of inspiration for future projects!! Lots of new supplies for this craft room that will be getting lots of use in the crafting year ahead! This all makes for one happy crafter for sure!

Sob City . . .

This post is about a gift my DSD made her dad for Christmas.... He is hard to buy for and never asks for anything so it is hard to really surprise him with something special but his daughter not only managed to give him a surprise gift but it made him cry . . .   The photos are not to show off the photos she used but to show the genius and talent of this gift. This gift involved his last dog he had for 15 years and it includes his new dog he got as a puppy about 2 years after his first dog passed . . .

Here it is - she made the black box and everything inside. There was a ribbon/bow wrapped around the box and DH had to untie it to open it. Here is the box closed with no ribbon:

This is a good sized box:

You lift off the lid and the first layer lays open:

With each photo there is a pull tab - you pull the tab and a second photo can be seen. She put the first dog and the pull tab revealed our current dog and vice versa as you continue to open the box:

and again:

and again:

inside this last layer is all "baby" photos of our current dog and inside that box is a key chain she made with the first dog's name on it and our current dog's name on the other side:

She makes beautiful key chains and this was no exception. The vinyl she used on this is holographic so it looks neat in the light. . .  She said she worked on this for weeks and kept sobbing while she was making it... so certainly a heartfelt gift for her dad!! Such talent and a genius idea!! Plus it made him cry so you know he loved it!!! Lucky him she shared her talents on this gift she made him! 

Elfin' thru the season . . .

This post is some of the items I have been working on for Christmas treats. To start with I did not want to have a theme or colour for this year's treat holders.  In the past I have used certain colours or maybe a theme but this year I wanted to make different treat holders in various colours and shapes using different items in the craft room.

I knew I wanted to make a square pillow box treat holder so that was one of the first things I made. I made these using kraft coloured card stock. I wanted a holiday design on the card stock so decided to use the Holly background stamp I had bought from Impression Obsession. This was a new stamp and not a seconds or used. (I recently went to their warehouse sale in Virginia to shop). Here is a photo of the packaging for this stamp:

I have other of their background stamps and have never had a problem with them. These stamps are packaged in clear packaging and on the back of this stamp is a piece of paper you peel off the stamp to reveal the sticky back for stamping with the MISTI or other stamping tool. I began to peel this paper off the back of the stamp and did not get half way before.... the paper would not come off the rest of the stamp.... I tried peeling it, tried the heat tool to heat up the adhesive on the sticky back to release the paper and this is the back of the stamp as I continued to work:

that is the best I could do to remove the stuck on paper. Have never had this happen before but what a mess it was.... but I really like the holly design so I had to be able to use this. Decided since the backing was not as sticky as it would have been if the paper had peeled off in one piece as they usually do I decided to use this stamp flat. I die cut all of the front and back of the pillow box pieces and inked the flat stamp and then laid the die cut pieces on the stamp and used my hand to press the pieces into the inked stamp to get the design on my pieces. Not what I had planned to do but it worked --- with all the pieces inked I put the boxes together and decorated them with printed card stock scraps. I had picked up the wreaths at Hobby Lobby on sale. They had foam pieces on the back and I removed them and used tear and tape to add them to my box fronts:

Here is a photo to show the light inked holly design on the pillow box:

Next is a bag topper I made -- used a bag topper die from my stash and cut that out of #110 weight white card stock from Mikes. I then cut a piece of red card stock to go behind the front of the bag topper piece. The printed card stock is from Christmas in the Country from Frank Garcia Studios. I used a poinsettia die and cut out red foil card stock for that. Used a bottle cap and clear disk from Hobby Lobby for the Santa face. I cut that out using a circle punch from the holiday printed paper pack from the Christmas in the Country collection. I used the glue gun to put this onto the center of the poinsettia and then put that onto a mini clothespin so I could clip it onto the bag topper:

Between the Santa disk and the poinsettia flower I put some thin gold thread for some sparkle. Used a die for "Believe" and I cut that out of gold foil card stock and put that on the bag topper using a glue pen. For a holder for the Tootsie Pops I used a die from My Creative Time:

but I had seen a video on Youtube for this Tootsie Pop holder so I made this one as well:

used stickers from Hobby Lobby to decorate the front:

I put the circle Santa sticker onto a card stock scalloped circle I used a punch for. The only thing I had added to this holder was the ring around the tag hole at the top to make the hole stronger for tying the twine through.

What Christmas is fun without the Snuggets?????

Those are Hershey nugget candies and their hats are finger tips from the Dollar Tree gloves sold in the bath section.... Added a white pom pom using hot glue. The small Snowman faces are from Morningstar at:   http://morningstarstamps.com/stamps/stamps.html   Pam sells the small and the large Snowman face stamps and I use them all the time for holiday items. I also have lots of her other stamps and you should visit her online store.

We have all done it -- seen a new product but maybe it was too expensive or maybe too limited... I had seen the Stampin Up Cutie Pie die set when it came out but to me making a piece of cake or a piece of pie into a box was too limiting and how many birthday cake boxes could I make??? So did not buy it .. but then.... had it seen it at a crafter's used stamp supply sale and I picked it up at a great price.... had seen a similar idea on Pinterest and had that project in mind when I bought the die set. Here is what I used it for this year for a holiday treat holder:

I die cut the box pieces using #110 weight white card stock from Mikes. I wanted this to be a sturdy box since it is filled with chocolates so I used the heavier card stock. I used the bone folder to crease all the scored lines well and then stamped the holiday greeting on the front piece using red ink. Set that aside. Before I did anything else I picked out the ribbon I wanted to use for this. Since I used a ribbon with snowflakes I decided to die cut a snowflake for the box front. Did not want white on white though so I used a glittered silver card stock and cut it out. Then for the back of it I used a piece of white/GP card stock covered with Stick-It sheet and cut out another snowflake. Peeled off the Stick-It sheet and put the two snowflakes together to make the snowflake sturdy. The center of the snowflake die has a star cut out in it so I took a small piece of scrap red foil card stock and die cut the red star out. I put the star into the center of the snowflake piece and put glue dots behind it to hold it in place.

With stamping and die cutting done I assembled this box using tear and tape. Put the snowflake on the box front using a glue dot behind the center of the snowflake. Used glossy accents to add a few of the small mirrored sequins to the box top. Filled the box with white paper shred and chocolates and closed the box. Tied one piece of ribbon around the box and it was done:

The ribbon is tied around the box and it can easily slide off to get into the box for the treats. Since I had never used this die set before I had made my first box using the white/GP card stock for my sample to see how to assemble this box. VERY easy and FAST and I think this is my favorite treat holder of all -- always like red and white for holiday items....

Lastly -- Candy Cane Seeds -- had bought the organdy bags at Hobby Lobby on sale and filled them with peppermint candies.  Printed  "Candy Cane Seeds" off the computer onto white/GP card stock and used circle punches to punch them out:

That is mostly the treat holders I have made -- not all were photographed but I wanted to share what I have been working on. Plan to post the front of the bags used to hold my treat holders in a day or two. TFL

Make Art Stay-tion Samples

This post is to show what I was able to make using my new Wendy Vecchi Make Art Stay-tion Mat. I had read reviews for this mat before I bought it to be sure I would be able to use it for stencils the way I wanted to.

Although it is a magnetic mat metal dies do not stick to it - which on a work table full of projects that could be a good thing - ;0).  The back of the box says this mat can be used for stencils, embossing, aligning and creating. . .  The first video for this mat I had seen the crafter was using it for stencils and that is why I bought it. In some of the reviews crafters complained it did not have rubber "feet" on the back of it so it could move on your work surface. I avoided that problem by using a piece of drawer liner that I trimmed to fit under my mat. I have the WRM Keepers glass mat on my work table so using the liner piece kept my Make Art Stay-tion mat in place. Here is a photo to show the liner piece I cut to fit under my mat:

I put the mat over the liner piece at an angle so you could see I cut the liner piece to a size that would fit under the mat. The brown craft mat I ordered to come with the Make Art mat and the magnetic alignment ruler that comes with the magnetic mat holds the brown craft mat in place.

I wanted to show a few different inks/mediums using this mat so I will go through them. This first photo is a Holly stencil by Echo Park:

All the card stocks I used for my samples are #110 weight card stock from Mikes in various colours. This first sample I used a regular green ink using a make up brush to apply the ink:

With this mat you do not have to hold your stencil with your one hand while you apply your ink/medium with the other. Plus the magnets kept the stencil in place so you have a crisp/clean stenciled image:

Will have to use this piece for tags and will add red Stickles and such to dress them up.....

This next sample I used the Hero Arts Hero Hues Reactive Sea Salt ink on my kraft card stock using the Snowflake stencil from Simon Says using a make up brush to apply the ink:

and with the stencil lifted off:

I also wanted to try using texture paste over a stencil. For this sample, again using the kraft #110 weight card stock from Mikes, I used a Snowflake stencil from Pretty Pink Posh:

Used the applicator knife and added the texture paste over the stencil:

Even with applying the paste the magnets kept the stencil in place so once the stencil was removed I still had a crisp/clean image:

Stencils can add so much to projects - - backgrounds for tags, card fronts, box fronts, etc.. I especially like with the different inks I used and also the texture paste I had clean images. Without this magnetic mat with the paste you could easily get a "glopish" (is that a word????) image with using a stencil. The stencil could move and smear or maybe the paste was applied unevenly or something. But this mat with magnets eliminates that problem.

Easy clean up as well -- I used baby wipes over the brown craft mat and dried it off with a piece of dry paper towel. Certainly happy I came across the stencil video to begin with so I saw this product in use. Hoping to get lots of use out of it for my holiday stencils for holiday projects ahead!

Here is the photo of the box for this product:

*** STORAGE ***

Awhile back my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime) asked me to go with her to a crafter's house that was selling her all her craft supplies.  When we got there this crafter had a large stack of the IRIS snap closure containers that are 12 x 12.  In all the containers were stickers/bling.  My PIC made an offer to this crafter for these filled bins along with other items she was wanting to buy. The seller took her offer and we loaded all the containers into the back of the car to head to her craft room. When she was finished unpacking all the containers she asked me if I wanted any of them (empty) so happy me she gave me quite a few!  I have been re-organizing (AGAIN) and I am happy to say I had a couple of the containers empty still. Fast forward to my new mat --

Here is a photo to show my new Make Art Stay-tion Mat in the IRIS container, along with the drawer liner square I cut for under it, and the magnets and alignment ruler. (In this photo you can see the extra magnets I had bought for it since I had broken some with my MISTI when that first came into the craft room and had to run to Home Depot for more magnets .... ):

On top of the mat and all I put a piece of thin cardboard - from the back of a card stock pad - to protect the mat, brown craft mat, and magnets:

Just finished sorting all my stencils and put those in zippered clear bags (from dollar store) by theme. I have all the BOO Day stencils in one bag, all the Christmas is together, and I have clouds, trees, and leaves together in one bag. flowers together, etc. . I used the label maker and labeled each bag.  I also labeled the IRIS container - front and top.  I have four of the Mobile Storage Towers by Ashland at Mikes in my craft room and I will keep this IRIS bin in one of those towers. Here is a photo to show all the stencils in the container with the mat:

Happy to have everything together for when I am crafting and am wanting to use the stencils and mat. Happy my PIC came across that sale for sure!!! Labeled and ready for use:

Good to have this project put together.  Also like that you can see thru the IRIS containers as well. Thanks to my PIC for sharing them!

Supposed to be . . .

Supposed to be cleaning up the craft room and putting away the rest of the BOO Day crafting items and dies and inks . . .   and also supposed to be putting away the Thanksgiving crafting items and dies and inks . . .   but  ..... 

Had recently seen a video on YouTube where a crafter was showing all the ways she uses stencils for different effects on her cards and projects.... she was demonstrating all of this on a mat I had not seen before used for stencils.  Below her video was a list of links of all the products she had demonstrated in this video for online stores.  I clicked on the link for this mat and the online store was having an ongoing sale on their site.  Before I ordered the mat I checked around the internet to see what else this mat could be used for besides stencils.

I read all about it with reviews of how it works and decided I would order one. I went back to the online store listed for the video and put the mat and the craft mat shown in the video in my cart. Went through the ordering process until.... shipping was $21.00~~FAR too much for this crafter to pay to have something sent to me. . .  I emptied my cart and shopped around the internet to see if I could find another online store that sold these items for less shipping. . .

Happy me that I found these items on SimonSaysStamp and their shipping was $6.99. They had no sale pricing but I certainly saved on shipping! 

They mailed it out this past Monday and I was surprised that it was delivered today!!  Really want to work with the mat but it will have to wait until this weekend when I have more time. Here is a photo of the box:

This is a photo of the back of the box:

And the mat out of the box:

The mat is a nice weight and not too heavy. Sturdy enough not to bend. It has a flexible magnetic ruler to help keep your project centered on the mat or it can be lifted off and put the side. By using this magnetic mat I will no longer have to use Post It Notes/tape, or purple tape, or painter's tape to keep my card stock in place when using a stencil. The mat will also prevent any tears/rips on the card stock surface from removing the tapes when the stenciling is done. Looking forward to using my new stencils - on sale - from Pretty Pink Posh - for Christmas projects this weekend. I will post more photos of what I make and how the mat works.  Certainly happy it arrived so quickly and for a third of the cost of the original shipping quote!  Shipping costs are not always the same so this just proves it pays to shop around!

Thanksgiving Treat Holders

Have been busy finishing up the Thanksgiving treat holders I had been working on and thought I would post some of the photos - not all treat holders were photographed but I will share the ones that were.

Treat bags that hold the treat holders:

The bags are from the Dollar Tree and I used a label die set from Cheery Lynn Designs for the front panels. . Each of the front panels are different as I used various printed card stocks from the stash. Flowers are from the Dollar Tree. Used foil poster board sheets in gold also from the Dollar Tree for my leaves/sprigs, "Blessings" word, and the scalloped border at the top and the bottom of the panel. (That is a die from Close To My Heart). Doily is also a Cheery Lynn die. Pumpkin is a die from my stash. Gold tulle bow is tulle from Hobby Lobby.

Here are some of the treat holders I made for inside the bags:

Used the Envelope Punch Board to make these treat holders. The holiday stickers on the front on the white scalloped circles I bought at Hobby Lobby and this is what they looked like:

Here is another treat holder:

and a nugget holder:

Used the MFT nugget holder set - the plastic inserts, the tags, and stamp set - altho I did not stamp anything for these holders. Also I made fry box treat holders and a small pillow box treat holder using the small pillow box die from Fun Stampers Journey. All treat holders have been filled with chocolates so am sure those will be enjoyed. Added an amber coloured plastic pumpkin to the top of the all the holders and those are from Hobby Lobby.  Ribbon and twine are from the stash.

Wanted to make some tags and here is a photo of one the tags:

Tag die set is from SimonSaysStamp, washi is from the stash, and the layered pumpkin die set is Penny Black. Cut the tag out of #110 weight cream card stock from Mikes. Punched out a circle to reinforce the hole at the tag top. Used a thin and a wider piece of washi tape and put that across the top of the tag. For the pumpkin I used scrap card stock for the pumpkin base and the gold overlay piece was die cut from gold foil poster board from the Dollar Tree. Put that over the pumpkin piece using a glue pen. Used one of the leaf die pieces in the Penny Black set for the leaves at the top of the pumpkin. The bow was made using a bow punch from Hobby Lobby. Added an orange gem bling piece from Queen & Co. to the center of the bow. Easy tag to put together and really like the pilgrim hat washi at the tag top:

Fun projects to keep me busy.... but I hear Christmas projects calling...... ;0)